Malcolm tip top for Kokoda Track trek

HAVING trained three hours a day for six months, Malcolm Hull has trekked every hilly street in Mackay.

The 55-year-old said he was well prepared for the MATES in Construction (MIC) fundraising Kokoda trek, which gets under way on Friday.

"It's 10 days long and 96km," he said. "But what we will go through is nothing compared to what the (soldiers) did."

Mr Hull said push-ups, lunges, bootcamps and lugging his 16kg backpack around the region had prepared him well for the trek.

"I feel a million dollars," he said. "I don't know if that will be the same after a few days on the trail."

Along with fellow Master Builders representatives and other construction industry workers, Mr Hull has helped raise more than $120,000 for MIC, a charity which aims to reduce the high rate of suicide in the construction industry. According to MIC, construction workers are six times more likely to die by suicide than through a workplace accident. Apprentices in the construction industry are two and a half times more likely to suicide than other young men their age.

The 30-person touring party will meet for the first time in Brisbane on Friday, before embarking on the tough journey.

"It's the beginning of their (PNG) wet season," Mr Hull said. "The weather there is a great unknown."